X-COM Pony within
by DEATHxCHAN
Summary: Bradford, Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen learn that their Commander is not what she seems to be. Twilight in the meantime has changed a lot during her 4 years in the human world. That's an excuse for her being OOC, btw. And then her friends appear one after another in the X-COM base, in order to get her back to Equestria. (I don't mind if someone copies this idea) C4 quality down sickness
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: I've only seen two Let's Plays from X-COM Enemy Unknown, so sorry if I get stuff here and there a little wrong.**_

_**Chapter 1**_

It's been exactly 2 years from the attempted alien invasion. Bradford, Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Shen were still working at the X-COM base, though it felt pretty empty. The levels 3 and 4 were shut down, because it was expensive holding up such a facility as the X-COM base. If it would go after them, it would be different, but they weren't the ones providing the money for the X-COM project. Of course the base could be easily reactivated, but still underestimating the aliens was more than just deadly.

Right now, the three of in total four heads of X-COM were having lunch together along with every other present stuff member and the soldiers. X-COM wasn't an organization, it was a family. And it was all thanks to the commander.

"Did ya hear the latest shit?" asked Demon, a female sniper. Nicknames told you everything about a soldier. In X-COM you truly belonged to the family, when you had a nickname. Hell, even the stuff members who weren't fighting had nicknames. No one was called by their right names.

"What?" asked Bishop, munching down his potatoes. "You know the Commander's nickname is Twilight, right?"

Everyone who made a comparison to the stupid book series, never heard the end of it.

"Well, I heard someone accidentally left her file open, where everyone can read it and guess what? Her birth name is _Twilight Sparkle."_

There was general amusement around the soldiers. "Really? Don't ya think it's just someone talking bullshit, after getting his head liquored from the test chambers?"

"No, I mean it, really! Someone even made a photo and send it to..."

Bradford suppressed a chuckle and focused again on the two other he was sitting together. "I'm afraid nobody will ever take the Commander seriously again." he said. Dr. Shen shook his head. "It's nothing about names. It's about what we do, although I do hear the Commander being in trouble again for her rather unique hairstyle."

Dr. Vahlen sighed. "I tried to convince her multiple times to change it, but that is the one thing she wouldn't listen to me."

The two men chuckled. The only reason Commander Twilight was allowed to keep her hair like she did was because of the results she was bringing. Under her command X-COM was able to fight back the invaders, but she was also a very social person. And yet at the same time a lot of mysteries surrounded the woman, her name being the smallest of them all.

She had been in X-COM ever since it started, but there she had been part of the research team. Later when X-COM was activated she appeared with a military record, an almost too perfect record. However everything matched up and thus the council decided to make her the leader. As it turned out it was a pretty wise decision, although at the very beginning she was one of the supporters to hold negotiations with the aliens. She dropped the idea, when on one mission she accompanied the strike team and tried to talk to the invaders. They in response shot at her, but one of the escorts caught the shot. Luckily he "only" lost his arm and was later replaced with a cybernetic one. In response the Commander herself eliminated at least half of the aliens. Nobody asked questions about her military background afterwards after seeing how the bullets seemed to fly themselves towards the heads of the enemies. She closed herself off for three days, before returning to duty. She had been very naive. Still she seemed to regret what she had done, but that was only Bradford's opinion.

_Speaking of the devil. _The man thought as he saw the Commander entering. She wore a standard C-COM uniform, only difference being the insignia on her shoulders, showing her being the Commander. She took some food, placed it on her plate and left. Bradford frowned.

"Is it just me or is the Commander a little off lately?" Dr. Shen asked, looking after her (and she still had the unique hairstyle).

"She seems more delicate as of lately." Dr. Vahlen stated. "She has been a lot in the research facility and more than ones she appeared in the lift, coming from the levels that are currently on standby."

"What would she do there?" Bradford asked with a raised eyebrow. Dr. Vahlen shrugged. "I did ask, but she only said she had been looking for something she supposedly lost."

"Now, now, I think we're over thinking this issue. She has a great responsibility and may be the most paranoid out of all of us, fearing for another attack. Maybe we should suggest her to take a vacation. A little sunlight can do wonders to the human mind."

For once Dr. Vahlen agreed with Dr. Shen. Although she was a workaholic like the Commander, she herself had taken a vacation too. X-COM paid well, enough for a trip to Dubai.

XIII

She had done it yet again. Dr. Vahlen had overdone it and now it was past midnight. There was still a lot research to be done. Now that all the military stuff was covered, she could use the time of peace to study for things like alternative energy forms and other things to improve the life on earth in the future.

Shaking her head, Dr. Vahlen shut down her tablet and left her laboratory. She was on her way to the main lift, when she saw it was going down. The number on the display showed it was on level 4. "The Commander again?" she mumbled to herself. Curiosity became the better of her, so she pushed the button and waited for lift to arrive.

The doc knew the Commander was as much of a sucker for science stuff as she was and that only her duties as a commander had prevented her from continuing her studies. However if Twilight was still interested, why not just ask Dr. Vahlen to join whenever there was time in the Commander's schedule?

The lift arrived and Vahlen stepped in. Being the main lift it was very big, made to transport heavy equipment. However, the sub lifts weren't operational, as it would cost way too much, at least according to the council. Truth to be told, even level 2 wasn't used much these days.

Arriving at level 4, Vahlen only found a dimmed lit hallway. Twilight, all of sudden the good doctor didn't like the nickname of her boss. She shook her head. There had to be a logical explanation for the Commander's behavior and most likely it was simple paranoia. Everyone in X-COM was at least slightly paranoid. It was almost necessary to be paranoid in order to join the X-COM.

The doctor's steps echoed through the hallway as she slowly approached the laboratory next to where they interrogated prisoners, aka mind raped them. Some may call this "inhuman", but after what the aliens did to the humans, at least in Vahlen's opinion it was well justified.

She heard sounds in the distance of the equipment being used, along with a soft humming. She didn't dare to connect her tablet with the computer, fearing the Commander just so might notice her.

The lights were all on and the Commander's back faced the window. Dr. Vahlen approached and dared to look inside. What was inside surprised her. The Commander was looking one of the screens, seemingly analyzing some readings. On a worktable there was a lavender colored gemstone glowing and floating.

"What...is she doing?" the doctor muttered.

"Almost got it." The Commander spoke excitingly. "I only need to push it a little more and..."

The gemstone burst into millions of small pieces, before Twilight could even finish that sentence. She walked over to the table and put her hands on the table, while supporting herself on it.

All of the sudden she slammed her hands on the table. "WHY?!" she cried. And then all of the sudden her voice became a booming echo. **"WHY. WILL. IT. NOT. WORK!?" **With each word she slammed her hands on the table, causing the dust that was once a gemstone flying through the air.

**"AAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGHHHH!" **She held out her hand and it was surrounded by a purple light. Dr. Vahlen stared in horror as an energy beam was released out of her hand and turned the table into a pile of dust. Twilight took a few deep breaths in order to calm herself down.

"Great job Twilight. Now you need to "correct" the security footage once again. But first I need to clean up."

_The footage!_

Dr. Vahlen ran to the lift and frantically pressed the button in order to get to the first level. When the doors closed, her brain went into overdrive. Judging from what she had seen, the Commander both had an unusual high psi-potential and didn't tell anyone or the Commander was an alien. Was this even the real Commander? She couldn't answer those questions, but she had to do something. When the "Commander" found Vahlen on the footage, there was no telling what she or possibly it would do to her.

She quickly stepped out and went over the options of what she would do with the footage, when she found Dr. Shen talking to a workman. He let out a deep sigh. "Well at least it is working now. Good job and good night."

"Good night doctor." The workman left and noticed his colleague.

"Ah, Dr. Vahlen. Doing another all nighter I see."

"I-I...uh...yes. What are you still doing here Dr. Shen? I hardly see you here at this hour."

The Doctor shook his head. "There was a problem with the security camera system and we just recently fixed it. There exists no footage of what happened in the last 12 hours. Can't wait to inform the Commander." he sighed. This was normally not his job, but they were so low on staff, it was ridiculous for something important such as the X-COM project.

"I see." Vahlen suppressed the urge to sigh in relief. Footsteps could be heard. Vahlen turned around and tried not to look too tense from seeing the Commander. "Dr. Vahlen, Dr. Shen." she greeted them with a smile. Vahlen had to admit it was a pretty good fake smile.

"Commander." the two greeted back in harmony and approached the woman. "Commander, there is something I need to inform you about. The security cameras were all malfunctioning, due to the system malfunctioning. We solved the problem, but twelve hours of the footage are missing."

Only Dr. Vahlen saw the glimmer in the Commander's eyes. "Are you sure it was a simple malfunction?" Twilight shook her head. "I'll go to the barracks. Better safe than sorry. Don't enter the lower levels until we've searched through everything. You two better check up your stock and see if anything is missing."

Not waiting for a reply Twilight left. "She really does need a vacation, but she has a point: better to be safe than sorry."

XIII

"Alright Dr. Vahlen." said Bradford as he and Dr. Shen approached the scientific leader of X-COM at the lifts. "Would you mind telling us why you wanted to meet with us in the middle of the night?" he asked a little annoyed. Night shifts were annoying enough for the man.

"I think it is better if I show you, else I'm afraid you won't belief me."

The two men gave each other a look, as Vahlen already went into the lift.

It was all like the first time, the dimmed hallways, the sounds of whatever the Commander was doing and then the revelation of her doing...something. Once Dr. Shen and Bradford saw the happenings with their own eyes, Vahlen led the two into an unused room, where she installed a monitor, linked to the cameras in the lab the Commander or alien was in.

"What's going on?!" asked/shouted Bradford, as he watched the screen. "I think what Dr. Vahlen wants to say is" Shen remained calm, despite the situation "is that our Commander is not a human, but an alien. Am I right, doctor?"

"I am not sure whether she is an alien or is mind controlled somehow, but in general you're right Dr. Shen." She looked at the screen, where the supposed to be Commander was doing something with yet another gemstone.

"She has done this for the past week. Unfortunately I couldn't find out much or she would have found me out."

"I can't belief this..." Bradford shook his head.

"It does explain her late behavior." Dr. Shen noted. All of the sudden some kind of violet spark came out of the Commander's hand and into the gem.

"This is new." Vhalan mumbled and took some notes. The sparks turned into a smaller version of the beam she witnessed a week ago and for three seconds it looked like Twilight was charging the gem like a battery.

"Just what is she doing?" Bradford spoke up.

"Yes, yes, yes." they heard the Commander...squeal?

"Alright Twilight, you almost got it. No mistakes this time."

As if fate was just playing with her the gem was destroyed the same way as a week ago and any other day Vahlen had been watching the Commander doing, whatever she was doing. Said Commander was having a breakdown. She slumped on a chair, put her arms on a table and buried her face inside them.

The three watched her for several minutes crying. None of them were expecting that kind of reaction. Ten minutes later she slowly got up and started cleaning the lab and putting everything back to where it belonged. She used some kind of psi power, letting everything fly and even opened cupboards and drawers.

When she was finished she just looked up to the ceiling. "Why?" Luckily the microphone on the camera was good enough for everyone to hear her mumble. "I just want to go home. Is that too much asked?"

She looked to the side. "Forgive me, but I give up."

Defeated she walked out of the room and slowly trotted through the dark hallways. Impatient the three humans waited for her to be on the first level, so they could follow. They waited a little longer, making sure she was away from the lift, so she wouldn't notice it going down.

"I give up?" Vahlan quoted inside. "As much as I hate to say it, she might have noticed the camera and..."

"No." Dr. Vahlen of all people disagreed. "The first time I watched her, I did it through the window and she really seemed to be upset for whatever she was trying to do not to work."

The two men looked at her. "It doesn't make any sense. If she has been an alien this whole time, why did she help us fending off her own kind?"

"A deserter?" Bradford suggested.

"Hmm, maybe she is a different kind of alien?" Dr. Shen suggested. "Like from another planet?"

"Whatever she is, this stays between us for now." Bradford said.

"What?" Vahlan was shocked.

"Think about it. We may have video material, but we shouldn't forget that she IS a celebrity." It was pretty impossible to cover up everything that happened. The soldiers were living legends, which included the commander, because of THAT ONE mission she has been an actual part of. A leader who can fight, what's better for propaganda?"

Dr. Shen nodded understanding. "Video footage can easily be faked nowadays. You're saying we need more-"

"-and in the meantime she continues with whatever she is doing." Dr. Vahlen interrupted. "We should just send a strike team, they can confirm that she's an alien, when they engage."

"Tomorrow night, when she tries again we'll send on down. I'll make sure of that and until then we'll keep our eyes open." Bradford stated.

XIII

Maybe Bradford's plan wasn't as foolproof as he thought it was. The Commander wanted to see him in her office. _Keep calm. It's probably just about the malfunctioning cameras. Or the council decided to cut the money again and my salary will have to suffer soon._

He took a deep breath and then knocked at the door.

"Come in!" A voice called from inside. Bradford opened the door. "You wanted to see me, Commander?"

Twilight looked up from whatever she had been writing and smiled. "I have a feeling you won't call me that for long anymore."

Bradford's heartbeat increased, but he didn't show it on the outside.

"I don't understand..."

The walls all turned purple and there was a faint sound of the door getting locked. Bradford was a fool to come without his gun. "Soundproof walls. Though we can still hear everything from the outside. Tea?"

"How long?" he just asked.

Twilight sighed. "Why don't you take a seat? This might take a while."

The man reluctantly sat down in front of his he-would-make-sure-soon-to-be-dead superior. Twilight in the meantime levitated a cup with tea in her hands and took a sip. "Well, where to start? I arrived on this planet about four years ago. It wasn't my first time on a planet full of humans, so I adapted rather quickly."

"There're others?!" Bradford exclaimed.

"Actually the last time had been an interdimensional travel, were I landed in an alternated world of my own, habitat by humans. Great Celestia, figuring out how to walk on two legs instead of four..." she laughed over her own stupidity.

"Anyways, I landed here on accident. You see, in my homeworld I am, you might say a researcher of the powers my kind possess." She pointed at the walls. "I was trying a new spe-, trying an experiment, when things went wrong." She looked troubled. "I don't know what went wrong. I only remember a white light and suddenly I find myself on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Talk about a "warm welcome"..."

Bradford just looked at her. Twilight sighed, seeing as he was probably thinking about a way to eliminate her.

"I immediately searched for a way home, but seeing as this would take some time...I'm not proud of what I have done. I stole money, faked my identity...but I made sure to pay everything back.

Then I learned about X-COM. Only a year passed and I was a pretty good scientist at Area 51. Seeing as how good I was, it was no problem becoming part of it." Her face fell, from neutral to sad. "Then came the invasion...and I couldn't just stand there and do nothing!" she shouted.

"I...at first I thought we would be able to negotiate and I hoped it was all a misunderstanding. If you would have lived on my world, you would understand why I did this.

You know how it turned out." she trailed off looking down on her cup. "I read once in a book, when we kill someone we kill a part of ourselves. Before that mission it had all been just an act. But afterwards...it was the first time I really hated something."

Bradford raised an eyebrow. "The first time?"

Twilight's mood brightened immediately, seeing as how the man finally decided to speak. Maybe not everything was lost. "Yes, my world...it's peaceful. Don't get me wrong, every now and then there comes someone who tries to disturb the harmony we have. But we either banish them or..."exorcise" them with what we call the elements of harmony. And no, it's not like the hive mind the aliens have and neither includes it mind control. Aside from that, we needed to return the elements to their rightful place.

Oh, sorry, I guess I got ahead of myself. The elements appear in form of artifacts and have each a gemstone inside them. They're very powerful and not even our leader scratches the power level of the elements. However as I told you, we needed to return them or else my kind would have died. It's a long story." Twilight sighed.

Bradford shrugged the entire conversation off as a way to confuse him. "What were you doing the past week?"

"Tell Dr. Vahlen she's more terrible at sneaking up, than I am. And I can fly." she laughed. She took out another purple gem and placed it on the table. "My own powers weren't enough to even send a message back home. It took a lot out of me, to even locate my planet. I should explain back at home I used some artifacts for my experiment. After the war was over, I thought with the help of the alien technology and my powers I just might be able to recreate one of the elements. Not perfectly, but enough to actually send a message home, so they could find a way to get me out of here."

"And then you would come back and start an invasion?"

Twilight closed her eyes. "You know, before the invasion I would have held you a speech as to why we would never do that." She opened her eyes again. "It's true what they say: the war changes people. But please think about it. Have I done anything to sabotage this project? Did I ever kill a human? Have you seen me using my powers against you? All I want is to go home, but since I knew you wouldn't belief me, I had to do it in secret."

She released the spell from the wall and showed Bradford a paper. He read it and was surprised at the content. "You're leaving? So you can do your experiments in peace?"

"I should have known you wouldn't belief me." Twilight sighed sadly. Another click sound could be heard and the door was open. "Do what you think is right, I won't stop you." The man stared at the alien woman for several minutes. She just looked back sad and...broken.

He carefully got up from his chair and slowly walked towards the door. He opened it and took a step outside. Twilight still wasn't moving. He opened the door fully and-

All of the sudden an alarm went off, startling both him and Twilight. The hidden alien jumped off her chair and went ahead. Bradford followed one second later.

"I told the council at least one hundred times it was suicide to set X-COM back into standby." She growled. She and her unwilling companion arrived in the mission room, where the two doctors already waited.

"What's going on?!" shouted Twilight.

"The scanners are picking something up!" An officer shouted. "We can't identify it, but it's coming from level 4!"

"It's here!?" Twilight shouted in disbelief. She bent over to a microphone and pushed a button. "Attention all soldiers. We have alien activity inside the X-COM on level 4! All soldiers are to report for duty immediately! Every none combat stuff member leave through the emergency excits! We're shutting down the lifts and cutting off level 3 and 4."

She stood up and looked at an officer. "Can we get a visual?"

"Afraid not madam! The cameras aren't working on the entire level!"

"That wasn't me, in case you're wondering." she whispered towards the three. The two doctors gasped and stared in shock.

"Strike 1 and 2 are ready!"

"Tell Strike 3 and 4 to standby! In the narrow corridors, less are more. We'll engage from two sides. Move out!"

The earth holograph disappeared and showed via split screen 2 helm cameras of the leaders of each squad.

"Central, this is Strike 1. We're ready to engage."

"Central, this is Strike 2. We're ready to engage."

"Copy that Strike 1 and 2. Proceed with caution and use your night vision. Be careful, there're a lot of things in the laboratories and workshops that might explode, when not handled correctly."

The next 20 minutes were tense. The soldiers ran from edge to edge, looking out for anything that moved.

Finally there was a visual, pairs of lights!

It turned out the teams met each other.

"What!" Twilight slammed her fist on the table. "How could the aliens escape?!"

"I-I don't know ma'am." An officer shouted. "The security doors are shut. After Strike 1 and 2 entered, we cut off the way out. Strike 3 and 4 are standing in front of the doors."

"What about the air conditioning?" Bradford asked.

"Shut off and closed! The sensors would have picked up if something would have tried to get through the walls."

There was a silence in the room.

"So either we're dealing with a new kind of alien here or..." Twilight trailed off.

"False alarm?" Doctor Shen suggested.

"Cross my heart" Confused Bradford, Shen and Vahlan looked at Twilight as she put her hand on her heart.

"Hope to fly" she raised her shoulders.

"Stick a cupcake in my OW! I always mess up the last part..."

"TWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!" a sudden scream could be heard.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Warning, LOTS of confusion. Will be explained in later chapters.**_

_**Chapter 2**_

Everyone turned towards where the shout came from. Twilight mentally braced for a hard landing as a pink blur entered her vision field and pushed her to the ground. The all too familiar scent of cotton candy entered her nose as she already felt her uniform getting soaked. It's not like she particularly liked the uniform anyway.

"Twilight..." a pink pony of all things was looking at her with tears streaming down her eyes. Twilight herself just hugged the pink pony. "I missed you Pinkie." Twilight whispered. She got all teary eyed herself. She then noticed a special kind of necklace around Pinkie Pie's neck. "Pinkie is that what I think it is?" she asked.

The pink pony looked down and giggled. "Yupperoonie, that's the real thingie!" she giggled and got off from Twilight, letting the woman stand up.

To say that the X-COM members were confused was probably the understatement of the millennia, even though it was only 2017. They had seen a lot, the weird Sectoids, the somewhat snake like Thin Man, the fearsome Mutons and so on. But never ever did any of them expect to see a pink, talking PONY in their lives.

Pinkie seemingly out of nowhere threw confetti into the air and jumped around Twilight, chanting: "I found Twi~light~, I found Twi~light~"

This went on for quite some time until the four strike teams arrived.

"What-"

"-the-"

"-actual-"

"-fuck?"

"THIS CALLS FOR A PARTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" Pinkie exclaimed, breaking the laws of physics once again by jumping twenty meter into the air and throwing confetti around everywhere in the control room.

Everyone looked at Twilight with a questionable look. Bradford, Dr. Shen and Dr. Vahlen were asking themselves what kind of crazy species the Commander actually belonged to, while the strike team members wanted to know what to do with the pink pony. Electrocuting or shooting.

Twilight was about to say something, when Pinkie seemingly out of nowhere appeared in front of her face. "TWILIGHT! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!" she shouted.

"Pinkie, would you mind toning your voice down a little?" she asked rubbing her ears one after another.

"But this is REALLY important! WE NEED TO CELEBRATE YOUR LAST FOUR BIRTHDAYYYS!"

Twilight facepalmed. "Pinke, would you mind waiting a little bit with your party? I think I need to explain a few things to...my friends here." She carefully glanced over to the assembled X-COM members.

"Okie dokie lokie! Ooohhh, I love blinking buttons."

"And don't touch anything."

"Aw, but Twilight!" She gave the cutest puppy dog eyes everyone in the base had ever seen.

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?"

Twilight let out a sigh. This was going to be a very long day, she could tell.

XIII

"You know it is ironic. Just last week we had a talk about how aliens could possibly trick this thing here and now..." Twilight smiled as Dr. Vahlen put the helmet on her head and made a few adjustments. The helm was a new kind of lie detector. It showed brain activity on a screen. A study has shown certain parts of the human brain are active during lying. It had been successfully tested on humans, but aliens were a completely different matter. In fact Twilight was the first alien who was being interrogated without getting mind raped.

Still there was a full strike team in the lab present ready to shoot her and Pinkie, who was enjoying a massage from Twilight, the only thing keeping her still.

Bradford and Shen were present as well, looking at a screen showing Twilight's brain with colors marking were the activity took place. Dr. Vahlen went over to the two and looked at the screen.

"Interesting. Her brain appears to be exactly like the one of a human. However there are certain parts which show activity, whereas by a normal human there is normally none."

"So what? She's a human with more brain activity? Is that it?" Bradford asked.

"I'm normally not a human, you know." Twilight called out to the three. "Of course if you would allow me to use my powers, I could revert back into my true form."

Several plasma weapons were raised after she spoke those words.

"Weapons down." Bradford ordered and walked over to Twilight. The EX-Commander of X-COM found conflicted emotions on her former subordinate's face. Betrayal, rage, hope, probably the hope of that she was just an alien who replaced the "real commander".

"Hey, turn that frowny, upside downy." Pinkie said with her usual smile. "I know! How about I make you some cupcakes?"

"Pinkie." Twilight smiled down at the pink earth pony. "Later okay?"

"Awwwww...okay! But you have to pinkie promise!"

She grabbed into her weird puffy mane and pulled a cupcake out of it.

"What? Me? Pinkie! You remember the last time we tried to make cupcakes?!" Twilight exclaimed. "Oh Twilight, that's easy! We'll just do it without your magic!"

"I did do it without magic and I still managed to destroy your house!"

"Alrighty! Now where do I have the party canon?" she asked herself while searching through her mane. Dr. Shen expected at most a toy canon to come out of her hair. He and everyone else took a step back, when with a loud *THUMB* a real time canon appeared out of her hair and landed on the ground.

Although at least two of the soldiers were trained on lightning reflexes and had alien genetic modified bodies, no one could react before the pink pony jumped on the canon and pulled a rope while shouting: "PARTY TIME!"

An explosion later everyone was covered in confetti and all kinds of sweets.

XIII

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" After literally sticking a cupcake in her eye, Pinkie officially promised not to use the party canon again in any laboratory. Twilight laughed at the faces of the X-COM members.

"That's Pinkie for you." she said to the three heads of X-COM.

Dr. Shen was the first one to come to his senses. They already had broken more than just one security line, when it came to handling alive aliens, but no one could really bring themselves over to it in doing something to harm the pink pony, who was currently licking up the cake from D. O. A.'s armor.

"Am I right to assume that you're...a talking horse?"

"Pony." Twilight corrected. "There are four different kinds of ponies. Pinkie Pie here for example is an earth pony. They're stronger than other ponies and usually do the hard work, you know: farming, building houses, etc, etc."

Pinkie was jumping up and down, not knowing on which blinking screen she should stare next.

"Then there are pegasi. They're like the Pegasus from the Greek mythology, but they're also the weather managers back at home. You see the weather in Equestria doesn't work the way it does here on earth."

Pinkie was now handing over party heads to everyone. Dr. Vahlen searched for an Arc Thrower in the meantime, but Pinkie beat her to it.

"Hey Twi', what's this?"

"Pinkie, DON'T!"

_BZZZT!_

Dr. Vahlen was more impressed by the fact that the pony managed to hold and use the stun weapon without any fingers, than worried about that she actually might have done harm to anyone. Pinkie's mane and tail were completely spiky and said pony stopped moving.

One of the soldiers carefully approached her and wanted to pick up the none-lethal weapon, when all of the sudden she jumped up to the ceiling.

"THAT THING IS AWESOME!" she didn't bother herself by stealing one of Dash's favorite words. "You have to try this!"

"Pinkie, wait!" And Twilight was out.

XIII

Bradford just received the last report of the patrols. No more aliens have been found inside the base. X-COM was now back in action. Every stuff member has been called back to the base, the levels 3 and 4 were back online and the council was assembled in less than a day.

A council official would be send to the base to hold the interrogation of the aliens. They needed to give the pink pony three sedate shots in order to make her fall asleep. Dr. Vahlen was running a blood test on her and Twilight as well as several others.

Bradford supported himself on the banisters and kept staring into the hologlobe. He remembered the times a lot of countries were on code red, at the verge of panicking. How the aliens started abducting on multiple places, but they could only response to a few, while letting the other countries down. How many human lives were lost? And then he remembered the face of the commander. The past day, they did a throughout checkup on her background and found out that everything was a fake. They had been lead by an alien the entire time.

_"At the beginning it was just an act, but then...it was the first time I actually started hating something."_

Her hurt face every time a soldier was KIA or when they spoke about the countries, the people they needed to leave at the hands of the aliens.

He didn't know whether this was all an act or did she really feel for the humans. A part of him wanted to leave her to Dr. Vahlan's studies, while the other wanted to give her a chance to explain herself.

Dr. Shen was just as confused, but had his thoughts straight out. While the fact that his boss had been an alien this whole time, he could comprehend as to why she didn't tell anyone she was an alien, especially after the invasion started. He also could understand why she would do anything in her power in order to get a message home.

The fact that she didn't do anything to the humans only lets him more sympathize with her. It was also a one in a lifetime opportunity to actually talk to an alien in peace and learn about the culture of an extraterrestrial species. Even if they happen to be a bunch of talking ponies.

Dr. Vahlen was probably the one of the most conflicted. At the beginning she had a reputation of being a rather business person and spent most of her little free time with studying aliens and technology. That's when the commander stepped in.

Being the highest ranked officer, there was no way Dr. Vahlen could refuse to speak to her. She could decline, but at one point she was so bothered with the Commander pestering her, she eventually joined on one game of chess. One became two, two became twenty and twenty became long conversations about quantum physics.

Twilight gradually brought Dr. Vahlen into spending more and more time with her colleagues until it became a weekly thing and after their victory even a daily. One day Dr. Vahlen brought up the topic to the Commander and the Commander told her about how Twilight's mentor practically forced her to take a vacation and then she realized how much time she had to spend time with people who were completely different from her.

Now she was asking herself if it was all just lies in order to get the trust of the doctor.

A beeping sound brought the doctor back on track. The results of the alien pony were there.

"Was zur Hölle?" [What the hell?] she whispered. The results showed the blood sugar of the pony being at 80%. [I kind of play with the facts here a little. Seriously, how else do you explain her weird behavior?]

"Hello again."

"Ahh!" Dr. Vahlen jerked around and saw the pink pony smiling up at her.

"Ahh! Yourself."

Dr. Vahlen ran to the other side of the room and pressed a button. "Security! One of the aliens escaped and is STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!" she shouted more angry than terrified. What kind of lazy bums did they hire?

"Watcha doing?" the pony asked casually.

"How did you come in here?"

"Through the door, silly." Pinkie Pie replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She excitedly jumped around, looking at all the different tools and moreover the computer screens, fascinated by the glimmering like a child would be.

The doctor in the meantime carefully opened a hidden shelf with a plasma pistol inside. Unfortunately she wasn't the best when it came to the use of weapons and this alien has already proven to have some hidden powers to avoid security and just appearing in a room from seemingly out of nowhere.

Luckily a patrol of four soldiers entered the room, aiming their weapons at the obliviously pink pony.

"Oh, oh, are we having a party?! I love parties! OH NO!" Pinkie jumped up, her hooves remaining on her face, shocked. She also stood still in the air for like ten seconds, ignoring the laws of physics once again. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is bad! What am saying? THIS IS ARMAGEDDON!" She appeared in front of Nero's face, startling the assault. "Fast! Where is your kitchen? YOU!" she appeared in front of Demon's face. "Quick! We need balloons! Lots of balloons! YOU!" Dr. Vahlen's brain was about to make an emergency shutdown, by how the pink pony always appeared in front of someone's face, while her body seemed to be frozen in midair like in a cartoon. "Get us a jumping castle! No, wait! A parade wagon! Arrgh, this is bad! Twilight's gonna hate me for the rest of her life!"

Pinkie frantically ran around the room, opening drawers and basically scattering everything possible around the room. She was way too fast to properly aim. One soldier tried his luck but failed miserably. However he got the pony's attention. "WOW! Can you get us more of those fireworks?"

"What's going on?" Bradford entered the mess of a laboratory. "What's going on? You're asking me WHAT IS GOING ON!?" Pinkie shouted as she grabbed the man's color and pulled him down. "In exactly 11 hours, 34 minutes and 22 seconds it is Twilight's birthday." she stated coldly. "WE HAVE LESS THAN 24 HOURS TO PREPARE A SURPRISE PARTY FOR HER!" She shouted, making the man dizzy.

XIII

Twilight still wondered about the sounds of the alarms. She was on the edge of teleporting into the situation room, but the less reasons she gave the humans to shoot her the better. So she patiently waited. She was currently held in where aliens got mind raped. Twilight didn't mind, she could teleport out in case of an emergency.

She briefly wondered why she still had her uniform on and was not wearing any prison clothes. She just hoped Pinkie was alright and not causing havoc. Oh who was she kidding? The alarms were probably because she was causing havoc.

As if to underline her thoughts, a totally enraged Bradford, a stressed out Dr. Vahlen and an ever so slightly smirking Dr. Shen entered the room. The three stopped in front of her. Twilight allowed herself to smile.

"Let me guess, Pinkie Pie?"

"She escaped." Bradford muttered.

"Out of her cell?" Twilight asked. She then held up her arms and shook her head. "I tried to figure her out ever since she told me about her "Pinkie Sense"." She waved off. "My friends and I nowadays only shrug it off as Pinkie Pie, being Pinkie Pie. Try looking at the food storage or my bureau. I have a couple of sweets in the drawer and she has a sixth sense for finding them."

"I think you don't understand." Dr. Shen said. "She escaped to the outside."

"WHAT?! How...? Oh Pinkie..." Twilight whined facepalming. "Wait, why are you telling me this?" she asked.

"Our scanners are unable to pick her up. So..." Dr. Vahlen trailed off. "You think I can readjust the scanners, so we can find her, right? She still has her necklace with her, right?"

"Yes?" Dr. Vahlen asked carefully. Twilight smiled. "Then this will be a piece of cake. Or pie in this case."

XIII

Heavily armed soldiers were watching over the ex-commander as she typed pretty fast at the keyboard. It took her only ten minutes to write the new protocols, so all they needed to do was to wait for the satellites to pick up the update and install it. Out of caution she had sent the update to all satellites, so she could scan for her other friends too, in case they were here. Twilight didn't know how Pinkie got here, but she was here on earth with her element, meaning the other four and maybe Spike too were here as well.

20 minutes later the update was complete.

"Okay, start scanning."

30 seconds later two signals were picked up: one was Twilight and the other was Pinkie.

"Huh? But I don't have my element with me? How come I'm still being picked up?" Twilight asked herself.

"Element?" Dr. Vahlen asked. "The gemstone inside of Pinkie's necklace. We call them the elements of harmony. Think of them as a powerful energy source for now. Looks like my element left a signature on me."

"Where is she?" Bradford asked slamming his hands on the table.

"She's...in a habitat area. Chances are she already made human contact."

"That's not the problem." Twilight said. "We're in deep trouble in case she gets her hooves or" she gulped. "Or if someone dares to break a pinkie promise."

XIII

Laura Hammond had seen a lot in her life. She was the daughter of one of the representative American's within the council which created the X-COM. She had long blonde hair, normal skin, wore a red t-shirt, a royal blue jeans, white sneakers and was currently a captive of some former EXALT members.

Since her father wanted her to be in her footsteps, against her own will mind you, she was pretty well informed about X-COM and thus new everything about EXALT. EXALT saw X-COM as a rival. They weren't exactly pro alien types, but wanted to use them to take over the world. You know the usual stuff. At least that summed it up.

Right now, Laura was in a trunk waiting to be taken out and brought into some kind of dark room and being tied up on a chair and a gun holding against her temple. It only happened three times before. She was used to it by now.

Suddenly the car stopped and Laura was violently thrown around in the trunk.

_Seriously? _She thought. Every other kidnapper at least could drive. She heard voices outside and thus decided to make some noises. They wouldn't kill her, she wasn't that stupid. Kidnappers always threaten to kill you, but they never actually do because then they had nothing to shield them.

The voices increased and then the trunk was opened. Now there were two possible scenarios of what would happen. Laura would be saved by a police officer or she would be punished and threatened for making sounds. It was neither of the two.

After her eyes adjusted to the light, she found a freaking pink horse looking down at her! Said horse gasped and turned around, obviously talking to someone.

"You're meanie pants!" The horse accused whoever she was talking to. After a few seconds Laura heard laughter and the sound of laser weapons getting ready. Before a shot was fired however, there was a rainbow light and Laura lost consciousness. [Not sure of Pinkie can go into Rainbow Mode alone, but I'm just assuming she can]

XIII

Laura woke up later in a hospital. "Must have been a dream." she mumbled. "Damn, did Craig put something into my drink?" she asked no one in particular.

"You'reawake!Thisissoawesome,nowwecancelebrate!Oh, !Wecanholdyourpartyandherpartytogether!That'sgreat!ButIstillneedtogetthesupplies! 'salwaysmorefuntodothingswithafriend, 'sgo,go,GO!"

["You're awake! This is so awesome, now we can celebrate! Oh, but I still need to prepare the birthday party for my friend. I got it! We can hold your party and her party together! That's great! But I still need to get the supplies! I know you can go shopping with me. It's always more fun to do things with a friend, you know. So let's go, go, GO!]

"What?" Laura managed to get out. To her shock at the edge of her bed sat the pink pony from earlier. Luckily there was a doctor with a clipboard in his hands, standing on the other side of the bed. "Doctor? Am I under morphine?" she asked.

"Afraid not miss. This nice..uh..."

"Pony."

"Right, this nice pony brought you here."

"How?" Laura asked.

"The car down in the entrance hall isn't yours, is it?"

XIII

Laura had decided this was way more exciting than her life had been so far. She didn't actually see the aliens or anything invented from their technology, she was trained to take over some bureaucratic work. Again, against her own will.

In return she had decided to freak her father more out, by going open into the streets with the pink pony alien. They used the back door in order to avoid reporters for the time being. Laura ignored the looks everyone gave the two, while the pony was busy waving her front leg in order to greet EVERY SINGLE PERSON.

"So...do you have a name?" she asked.

"I'm Pinkie Pie, party thrower extraordinaire! What's your name?"

"I'm Laura. So...eh...you're an alien?"

"I'm a pony!" she protested.

"Right..." Laura chuckled amused. "Wait!" Laura stopped the pony with her leg as they needed to cross the street and the light was red. "We are only allowed to go when the light turns green. See?"

"Oooooohhh!" The pony was impressed for some reason. By now a large crowd was following the two. "Oh, oh, I need to prepare a party for my friend Twilight! Tomorrow's her birthday!"

Laura thought about it for only a second. "Know what? Since you saved my life, I'm gonna help you. This way."

Laura walked ahead and Pinkie followed swiftly. "Where are we going?" The pony asked excited. "To the Wal-Mart. We can find everything you need for a party there. Say, is your friend an ali-, sorry, a pony too?"

"Yupperoonie, but she looks like you guys at the moment for some reason. I wanted to ask, but then I remembered her birthday was tomorrow! And she already missed her three other birthday parties, because she's stuck here. Luckily me and the others came to bring her back!"

"There're more?" Laura asked.

"Oh, they couldn't come right away. The princess tried to explain it, but I was just sooo excited, so I jumped through the portal right away! So when everypony is here, everything will be ready for the party!"

The two arrived in front of a giant building. Laura picked up a trolley. "Jump in."

"Yay! Wroom, wroom, Laura! Time is candy!"

The girl laughed. "You know, you're funny Pinkie. By the way, what's that mark on your flank?" she asked while going into the building. "It's my cutie mark, silly!"

"Cutie mark?" she asked. "What's that?"

"A cutie mark shows a pony's special talent. Don't you have a cutie mark?"

"Uhh...no. Humans in general don't have one as far as I know."

The employees weren't sure what to do. For one there was a freaking talking pony in their shop and more than one member had bad memories about the aliens. On the other hand, she was just so freaking cute.

"By the way, what did you do with the EXALT guys?"

"Huh?"

"I think you called them..."meanie pants"."

"Oh, some stallions in blue took them, when we arrived at the hospital. What's this?!" Pinkie got distracted by all the things they sold in the store. For the next 15 minutes Laura was busy keeping the pony inside the trolley. She decided to ask questions later, when they were outside again.

The stares were a little uncomfortable, but she managed to ignore them all. Until a like five year old girl came out from around the corner and stared wide eyed at Pinkie.

Said pony waved cheerily at the girl, who in return squealed happily. "Mommy, look! A pony!"

Laura quickly went away. Mothers turned to panic a lot easier, than any other people.

"Alright, here we're. Just tell me what you need and I'll purchase it." Pinkie squealed overjoyed. She picked up the shelves empty and put everything into the cart. In the meantime the manager arrived and was watching with other customers in awe the pony running from one shelf to another.

"Don't worry, I can pay." Laura took out her purse and showed him multiple hundred dollar notes. "Though, we might need a few more carts..."

_"My name is Pinkie Pie  
>and I am here to say<br>I'm gonna make you smile and  
>I will brighten up your day!"<em>

Okay, NOW Laura had officially seen it all. Pinkie Pie just managed to get everyone into singing with her!


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: I personally don't like that chapter very much, but I don't want to rewrite it AGAIN. Give me your opinions.**_

_**Chapter 3**_

Twilight didn't even try to hold her laughter as everyone saw the life interview of Laura, Edmund Hammonds daughter (Council representative), gave an interview about being rescued by Pinkie Pie. Said pink pony was showing off her rainbow mode skills, creating all kinds of spectacles.

Twilight was on the ground at one point and probably would have lost consciousness by now, if not for the fact that alicorns didn't need to breath.

Suddenly Pinkie appeared above Laura, without the rainbow colors on her body. "Hurry up, Laura! We only have 2 hours to prepare Twilight's surprise birthday party!" She fell to the ground afterwards.

Laura chuckled. "Sorry, you heard her. Uh, by the way, where is your friend?" Laura asked.

"Oh, she's in that GIGANTIC mountain, with all those blinking buttons inside. She looks like a human for some reason. Probably poison joke again."

"I didn't need a reminder of that one." Twilight muttered.

"And everypony calls her Commander for some reason, which is silly because Twilight can't be a Commander."

"And why not?" Laura asked, the camera zoomed on her and Pinkie Pie.

"Silly filly, Twilight's a princess! Oh no, wait I'm an alien here, which makes Twilight an alien, which makes her an alien princess, making her a very important pony, meaning if some meanie hurts her, the other princesses will seek vengeance, meaning we would be invading aliens. THIS IS SO EXCITING!"

"I think it is time for some damage control." Princess Twilight Sparkle stated.

Council member Hammond, one of the representatives of the USA had to make a decision and honestly, the situation couldn't be worse. He had evidence that his daughter really had been kidnapped and the EXALT members already confessed.

Though there was a problem. Not with the confession, but with EXALT. Rather than being captured, they normally committed suicide on the slightest chance of getting captured. The team, which had been headed towards scene of where Laura had been supposed to be captured, had found evidence of some kind of beam weapon being used.

The EXALT members really seemed to regret what they had done. That was NOT normal. The logical conclusion was brainwashing. Edmund looked over to Twilight who was still looking at the screen, arms crossed and smiling. Actually everyone was either looking at her or at him.

He had no time to interrogate the alien yet, so the only thing he had were her past actions.

"You always tried to convince the Council to keep the X-COM base at full alert."

"Yes?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The question is: why? Wasn't it easier for you to send a message to your homeworld with the base being half empty?"

"Trojan horse tactic?" Twilight suggested smiling.

...

"You and you" Edmund gestured towards two guards. "You'll come with us. Prepare the Skyranger to send a team, but don't move out until I say so. I want you all to keep an eye on my daughter."

"You should have stayed in the army, general." Twilight said as they were walking down the hallway.

XIII

30 minutes later Council member Hammond came out of the situation room alone, the three heads of X-COM waiting for him.

"Where is the specimen?" Dr. Vahlen asked.

Hammond took a deep breath. "Before you ask about my credibility, I am equipped with a mind shield. Ms. Sparkle is currently answering some detailed questions about her homeworld, while I am here to announce the Council's decision."

_Something tells me I won't like it. _Bradford thought.

"The Council's decision is to give Ms. Sparkle the same rights as any normal ambassador would have."

"WHAT?!"

_Saw it coming. _Edmund thought, as he resisted the urge to rub his ears.

"With all due respect, _sir._" Dr. Vahlen almost spat the word. "Have you lost your mind?!"

"I agree with Dr. Vahlen." Bradford interjected. "We don't know what she's really capable. This might be some kind of trick of hers, for yet another invasion."

"I understand your concerns. I really do. As you probably know, I have lost my wife and my cousin to the invaders. But even you have to agree, it doesn't make any sense for her to help us, if she planned on an invasion herself."

"Well, maybe she's not the real Commander." Bradford was grasping for straws here.

"The Council did a throughout investigation. Twilight Sparkle or as she later changed her name into Lauren Faust, never existed. She just appeared the approximate time the alien appeared on our planet.

Now, I won't tolerate any more discussion. In exchange for becoming an ambassador of her planet, she allowed us to study her physiology and mind, as long as it excludes mind raping."

"Excuse me, but even I have a hard time believing she would allow us to just like this examine her." Dr. Shen stated.

"There certain risks involved, but the Council is ready to take them. Now, if you'll excuse me I go and get my daughter."

Hammond left, leaving the three heads of X-COM dumbfounded.

"I can't belief this." Dr. Vahlen barely held herself together from exploding. Dr. Shen nodded. "It went...a little too smoothly for _our guest."_

Bradford made a fist. "We'll watch her every movement. From now on, we'll be wearing mind shields 24/7. Dr. Shen, make sure we have enough for them for at least the entire military personal. Dr. Vahlen, try to find out every possible weakness. I want to be prepared for a counterstrike."

"Of course." Dr. Vahlen agreed.

"I'll try to make as many mind shields as possible for the other personal as well, but I can only take so much material before anyone notices it." Dr. Shen stated.

In that moment Twilight walked out of the room, directly into her three former subordinates. "I guess you already heard the news."

There came no response out of them. Twilight sighed. "Look, I know my word doesn't count anything for you, but my race isn't in the slightest interested in conquering or invading."

Again no answer. Twilight looked down to the side. "Guess my newest diary entry will be to tell everyone beforehand that you're an alien, before offering another race your help."

The former Commander, now ambassador of Equs left the three in the hallway, as she walked towards her old bureau to get her personal stuff out. She knew this day would have to come and so she had mentally prepared herself. She still felt pretty down after how Bradford, Vahlen and Shen had looked at her.

Luckily there was Pinkie Pie. Still Twilight needed to ask the mare of how she got here in the first place. In her bureau, Twilight used her magic in order to levitate everything that belonged to her into a box. With the help of magic, it didn't take her long. The only thing left was a photo frame with a picture of her and the three heads of X-COM, all smiling. It was on the party after destroying the temple ship, in honor of "Hero", the volunteer who saved the entire planet by sacrificing himself.

"Applejack is going to give me one heck of a scolding for lying. Scratch that, she's going to buck me into Tartarus." Twilight laughed a sad laugh and bent over in order to put the picture into the box. Luckily she did that instead of using magic, because at this very moment plasma was shot above her head.

"DIE YOU ALIEN BITCH!"

Twilight, now being military trained, didn't thought at all, but let her reflexes do the work. She jumped over her desk and took cover behind it. It only bought her a few seconds, as the desk was shot next, the plasma turning it into ashes.

_Damn, my plasma pistol had been in there._

She wasn't fond of shooting her own troops, but she knew her skills and was able to cripple someone temporarily without killing him or her. The Princess took over behind a wall next to the doorframe. She then remembered that she was already exposed and could use magic to her full extend.

"That all you got?!" She recognized Pitbull's voice. She knew them all. Pitbull had lost his entire family to the aliens. He was always rash on missions, but never panicked. And he was trigger happy. Add a heavy plasma to this and you're considered his enemy, you get a Muton in human form.

The walls around the doorframe were thicker, but a few shots with plasma would be enough to blow it away. "I got a present for you!" The man shouted. The present turned out to be an alien grenade.

Twilight teleported away on instinct, landing next to the man. He was wearing his full body armor, along with the latest techs and most likely a mind shield too. However the mind shield didn't stop Twilight's levitation, so first thing she did was disarm the man, by letting all of his weapons fly to the end of the corridor.

The heavy reacted quickly and started using his fists. Twilight ducked and infused her hands with magic. Next she pushed the man away against the wall. He only growled in response and counterattacked.

Twilight knew if she would use more magic, she would injure the man and possibly kill him. So instead of using her magic for offense, she put up a shield and let the man box against it.

"I can do this for weeks, Pitbull." Twilight spoke in an authoritarian voice.

"Oh really? We'll see about that!" the man just spat in return and continued his mindless assaults. Alicorns grew stronger overtime, slowly but steadily. Twilight was already pretty strong, magic being her specialty. She was not nearly god like, for that she was way too young. But she was still stronger as an Ethreal, although she was not capable of using a hive mind. Hey, she was no changeling.

Long story short, Twilight decided to wait until Pitbull would have exhausted himself, before she tried to talk to him. Though, that was only plan B. Sooner or later they had to be found, not to mention there were cameras everywhere.

It still took X-COM pretty long to react, perhaps because she was an alien. "Major! Stop this instant!" she recognized Bradford's voice. A team of four members came running and secured him. "Let me go! I'm gonna kill that bitch! I will ARRGH!" An Arc Thrower had been used on him and the man lost consciousness.

Twilight dropped the purple shield in front of her and looked down on the fallen man. Knowing the proceedings, best case scenario the man would get detention and lose all his privileges. Worst case, he'd be thrown out and would have to look after himself.

Bradford and the other soldiers only glared at her, hurting Twilight even more from the inside. "Are you alright?" Everyone could hear it was forced out of Bradford's mouth. Instead of answering, Twilight walked over to the remains of her destroyed desk. The upper left corner of the picture frame was the only thing that didn't get melted.

"I'll catch some fresh air." Twilight announced before teleporting on top of the base, in a well hidden small cave. It was there were Twilight curled up to a ball and started crying. She just wanted to go home by now, but she still had no idea how Pinkie got here in the first place.

Whatever, it was a start that she was here, plus she had her element. Most likely scenario was that Celestia had found a way to get Twilight off from this _bucking _planet, where friendship was almost meaningless.

XIII

"I don't have a sugar level, my sugar has a blood level!" Pinkie exclaimed, as she was jumping off from the Skyranger, Laura walking next to her.

"Wouldn't that mean in return you would have to suck out blood from others to keep up your blood level?" Laura sweatdropped. How the hell did they get into this kind of conversation in the first place?

"Of course not silly. My body creates blood like every other body! I'm not a vampony!"

Her father had been just watching, his hands ever so slightly drifting to his plasma pistol every now and then and yes, Laura DID notices it. The soldiers at least didn't try to hide their anxiety. There had been a lot of reporters and Laura actually wanted to give an interview, BUT her father and the X-COM just had to overdramatically appear in the Skyranger and take her and Pinkie into the thing.

"I hope they bring the party supplies really quickly! Twilight's birthday is in a few hours and she totally needs a party!"

"Who's this Twilight anyway? You said she looked like a human."

"Laura" her father spoke up "there's something I haven't told you yet. The reason we came here is because as it turned out, the Commander of X-COM has been all this time an alien."

...

"WHAAAAAAAT?!"

Laura was given a short explanation of the council's decision. She never expected that to happen. Probably Pinkie saving Laura's life with some kind of rainbow light, as satellite pictures showed, had been a heavy influence on them.

"Okay, I THINK I get it...are we going to speak to her...now or something?" she asked a little nervous, because if it was true as to what this Twilight said, then she was actually royalty and everything they said to her would influence her opinion in one way or another. And this opinion she would then give to her people. Ponies?

"Well, speaking of her, where is she?" Edmund Hammond asked Bradford.

At this moment something weird happened. Pinkie was standing completely still, like frozen on the spot and staring at a wall. No one would have noticed, if not for her necklace glowing up. The soldiers raised their weapons, but Laura placed herself in the firing lines.

_What am I doing? I don't know, but it just feels right to protect her._

The glowing faded and for a moment nothing seemed to happen. Until...

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO TWILIGHT?!" Pinkie Pie shouted, entering rainbow mode. This was the most ridiculous intimidation attempt Laura had ever seen. Pinkie Pie became a multi colored pony, her mane and tail getting puffier, but her expression changing into a really angry one.

The part of the girl's mind that was still thinking straight, despite the randomness of the mare in front of her, briefly wondered what made said mare so upset. The answer was rather simple, like always.

"WHY IS TWILIGHT CRYING?!"

There was no time to ask questions and risk the mare getting even more aggressive. No one really expected that kind of behavior from the pony, but someone HAD to calm her down, before she would cause a second war. Plus there was an actual risk Pinkie would be killed in a matter of moments, the thing Laura was the most worried about, aside from knowing the mare for less than a day.

"Pinks! Stop it! That won't solve anything!"

Pinkie looked at Laura, her expression changing in a split second. "You're right, I have to comfort Twilight." And she was off, leaving rainbow trail.

And she was back. "No parties for you!" she shouted and left again. Laura found something on the ground. It looked like Pinkie lost the birthday present she wanted to give to Twilight.

XIII

"How could this have happened?! The council's decision is clear! How come nobody noticed a soldier in full heavy gear walking around?!" Edmund slammed his fist on the table, glaring at Bradford. Since officially Twilight wasn't the Commander anymore, Bradford was the one in charge, even if it was only temporary.

They had found Twilight alright with a Drone. An unarmed one, stolen from the aliens and only good for spying. Twilight had shot the thing a second later, after it found her.

Bradford's eye twitched. "_Sir, _with all due respect, but aren't you in the slightest concerned-"

"Now you listen up! It only takes a word from me and you'll spend the rest of your career peeling potatoes. If you can't keep your soldiers down, there'll be trouble for everyone! The council isn't interested in a second war! If we can ally with an alien species, we might be able to fight another invasion back easier."

Hammond walked over to the screen in the situation room, pressing a button and turning on the television mode. The sound was off, but one could see as how Pinkie Pie was liked by the common folks.

"So this is all about image?!" Bradford dared to ask.

Edmund took in a deep breath, calming himself. He knew what the other man thought. The council hadn't been on the front lines, they had just sit in their chairs and watched with popcorn in their hands and of course that Edmund's own opinion was totally biased.

But Edmund had looked logically at the situation, looking over everything this Twilight alien did in the past and moreover she played a big role into saving the planet, something most of the other humans seem to have forgotten about that fact.

XIII

"I should go to the gym more often." Laura muttered to herself as she finally made it to the point where Twilight was being comforted by Pinkie. With Twilight still being in her adult human form, it looked a little funny, but was nevertheless pretty emotional, seeing two best friends reunited after four years of separation.

"Princess Twilight?" Laura spoke up. Twilight and Pinkie looked up.

"No need to call me princess. I've never had the chance to get used to the title, before landing here. No need to keep your distance, we ponies are vegetarians after all."

Laura got closer and placed herself on a nearby rock. "So you're Laura?" Twilight asked.

"Y-yes. Urgh, sorry about my stuttering. I wasn't this nervous when I first met Pinkie."

Twilight chuckled. "You tell me, when I first saw other humans. Not to mention getting used to all these strange limbs and the sudden appetite for meat. I had troubles restraining myself from eating that. This body's instincts and all."

"Y-yeah, I guess. So, what's going to happen now?"

Pinkie jumped on Twilight's lap and let herself being massaged by the pony in human form. "From what pinky told me, I can guess what's going to happen. Back at home my friends managed to creat a portal. With the elements" she pointed at Pinkie's necklace "they're able to bring them near me. However Equs, our home planet is pretty far away. It requires probably a lot of energy to make it stable to send one pony through it. And when finally all the elements are here on this planet, we can create a second portal, connect it to the first one, stabilizing both of them in the process and we'll all get home."

"I see." Laura stored the information into her brain. "And in the meantime? People are going to ask questions about Pinkie Pie and they'll expect you to speak up."

Twilight waved off. "Guess I just have to play along a little more."

Laura shook her head. "Boring. Actually, I got an idea. Must be depressing spending all the time underground right?"

"If I'm honest." Twilight nodded.

Laura grinned. "Then let's make it impossible for them to keep you hidden. Oh by the way, Pinkie, you lost something."

Pinkie gasped and snatched the package out of Laura's hands before Twilight could see it. The human around in the trio in the meantime took out her cell phone and made a call towards a hotel, making some reservations. She never liked the way humanity thought and in order to change that, you had to go against those who decided how humanity should think, in this case the council.

XIII

Twilight had used her teleport abilities to get them into town, only making short distances. Pinkie was kept hidden for the big surprise the next day.

Twilight had casted a spell the previous day, so X-COM wouldn't be able to detect her or Pinkie for 24 hours, which was enough. The next day the trio just casually walked down the busted streets and bought ice cream. Twilight still wearing her X-COM uniform wasn't exactly subtle herself and it looked kind of ridiculous with her casually sitting on a bench, eating ice cream.

They didn't have to wait for long for reporters to appear, seeing as they were sitting in front of a famous TV station building.

"I think we're on air." Laura said, looking into a TV shop, one of the TVs from behind the window frame showing the three.

"Oh hey, look! It's us!" Pinkie was totally excited.

"Everyone can see us now through these things, you know?"

"Really?! HELLO!" Pinkie waved her hoof cheerfully. "Pinkie, you need to look into the camera." Laura pointed out giggling.

She turned to the "Commander". "Now or never."

Twilight took in a deep breath. "Well, it's been quite some time since I was last in my true form." She turned towards the reporter who was about to ask a question, when Twilight raised a hand. "Before I answer any of your questions, there's a confession I have to make."

Twilight's eyes started to glow and her magical aura was surrounding her. People immediately took a step back and stared at her as she slowly rose into the air, while being completely enveloped in purple light. Her form started to change and in a matter of seconds you could see a pony being enveloped in the light. The light disappeared as Twilight spread her wings. Absent minded she noted that they were a little bit bigger. She must have grown without noticing it in those four years.

She slowly landed on the ground, opening her eyes and smiling into the camera.

"I'm an alien."

"ALIEN PRINCESS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TWILIGHT!" Pinkie shouted.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: In case you haven't noticed: I don't give a damn about power balance in this story, 'cause A: this is a just for fun scenario and B: I submitted it under Friendship NOT Adventure.**_

_**Don't read if you don't like imbalance.**_

_**Sorry for the delay. I got sick and I still am. Naturally, the quality goes wayyyy down in this chapter. Also that's why this chapter is shorter than normally. I feel like shit.**_

_**Chapter 4**_

Twilight should have known something was up, when Pinkie Pie shouted "Happy Birthday". She barely moved her head around, getting a glimpse of the party canon, when Pinkie pulled the trigger, shooting a huge cake into Twilight. The impact caused her to slam into the next best wall, making her seeing many Pinkie Pies chasing cupcakes over her head.

The surrounding people were still stunned about the fact that there were two alien ponies in front of them. Everyone except one. "That's...*snrk* hilarious~ hahahaha!" Laura was laughing her ass off. Twilight grumbled something under her breath. Part of the plan was that Twilight humiliated herself in front of everyone, but Laura never told her that part, only Pinkie. There was a certain thread of logic in the mares babbling: you aren't afraid of something you find funny.

The lavender unicorn levitated the cake off from her and placed it on a nearby bench. "Pinkie, was that really necessary?" she asked.

"Uh huh! Get ready Twilight!"

"Ready for what?"

Laura snickered and helped Pinkie aim with the canon. "Pinks said you still need to catch up three more birthdays. I told her we ain't have the time, so we cut it short and just shoot the cakes at you. You know, some kind of fast catch-up party?"

"By shooting me with cakes. While the entire world is watching." Twilight deadpanned.

_Three cakes and a quick cleanup later_

Whether it was fate or coincident, the child Laura and Pinkie met the other day had been there too and was now riding on Pinkie Pie's back, getting the one or other "aw" from the surrounding people. Twilight chuckled at the sight, getting the rest of the frosting out of her mane or at least trying to do so.

Police cars arrived and it would only be a matter of minutes until an X-COM squad would arrive with the Skyranger. At least they wouldn't have any ways to shoot, because of all the civilians around in the area.

"Well, if you have any questions, ask away." Twilight spoke to one of the reporters, who just noticed how close she really has been to him. He immediately took a few steps back, wary of the alicorn princess.

...

"So...you're an alien?" the reporter asked nervously.

"Uh huh. My name is Twilight Sparkle. And my friend over there is Pinkie Pie." Twilight pointed with her hoof at Pinkie, who was jumping up and down. "Pinkie, be careful. You have a child on your back." Twilight chided.

"Twilight, I'm always careful."

_Bite me. _Twilight thought.

"H-how long exactly have you been on earth? Did you come with the invaders?"

Twilight frowned. "I have been here for four years now and we have NO relationship whatsoever with the invaders. I didn't even know they existed until they arrived here. Anyways, I think it would be better if I tell you my story.

On my world I'm a researcher of the powers we ponies have, like you have seen me transforming back into my original form. I was conducting an experiment and to sum the events up, it totally went downhill. I woke up in the desert in front of Las Vegas.

After making myself a human appearance, I faked identity papers, a back-story, made myself a solid life and tried to find a way back to my home planet. I eventually heard the rumors about alien experiments and all that fuss. They're wrong and the food tastes like it had been cooked with a nuclear explosive." Twilight wrinkled her snout.

The reporter couldn't help, but chuckle a little.

"Eventually X-COM was founded and I signed up for the project, as a scientific researcher first. When the invasion started, I thought there would be a way to talk things out. I guess you all heard the story about how this ended. I faked a military record and easily became the leader of X-COM.

After the invasion was thrown back, the funding for X-COM was cut short. Many sections of X-COM weren't used anymore and I used the lack of security to try and at least send a message to my home world. At first I thought it didn't work and I'd be stranded on this damn planet for forever. No offense.

But then yesterday my friend appeared inside the X-COM base seemingly out of nowhere. My other friends are on the way here and once everyone is here, we should be able to create a portal on this planet, my friends and I can go home. I can't open a portal on my own, in case you're wondering."

"I hate to interrupt you guys" Laura approached "but I think it's time for us to go." She pointed at a group of X-COM veterans in full armor approaching. All the cameras zoomed in towards the group. Twilight could hear Pinkie muttering something along the lines of "party poopers". She let the girl crawl down her back and was picked up by her mother.

"I know it already." Twilight sighed. "Worst. Birthday. Ever."

"You could just teleport us away, cause a mass panic, while we laugh our asses off over a drink." Laura suggested with a grin. "How about Rio?"

"My teleportation is limited, you know. Especially when I have to "carry" two more people with me."

A man, so far unnoticed, stepped up from behind the assault soldier. It was Laura's father. "Laura! Are you alright?"

"Of course I am. Man, dad, you're the one who dragged me into this and ever since those kind of things keep happening to me. And before anyone makes any false assumptions, it was all my idea."

"I know this already." her father sighed.

XIII

_We had to follow X-COM without any resistance. They didn't bother answering any of the reporters questions. Instead, they simply brought us back into the base with the Skyranger. Practically we were under house arrest. Laura was brought into the containment chamber and would undergo tests in order to see if I mind controlled her. Turned out the girl stole a mind shield without anyone noticing. How she did that was still under investigation. But I made a mental note not to underestimate the girl. She was running some sort of agenda herself. But what could she possibly accomplish with all of this? What was her goal?_

_This planet made me so doubtful. I needed to get home. I considered just waiting in the room I was in until I can go home._

_As if they let me just go home was what I thought. They weren't my friends. To them, at least to X-COM, I was just another alien, another threat. As for the council, I could think of multiple reasons why they would want to make contact with an alien world. But one of those things stood out: greed._

XIII

"The last tests are finished. Your daughter is not under some kind of mind control." Dr. Vahlen stated. "It is as she said: she had the mind shield with her this in entire time."

"This is a serious security oversight." Hammond commented. "But then again, it was me who gave her access to every room in HQ. And it was the council who cut the founding short."

Everybody was thinking about their salary at that statement. It had been still high, but cut down none the less.

The three heads and the council official were sitting in the meeting room on a table.

"Okay, since we have this cleared" Hammond went on "there is one other topic I would like to approach. The press is now of course hanging on our necks with questions. It's only been a day, but...oh well, I don't think I need to repeat myself."

Dr. Shen nodded. "I don't think we'll be able to hide this for much longer."

"Not to mention the people will start to distrust the council. They know each member is also a member of their respective governments. The general public will start to mistrust them and I don't even want to start thinking where this all might end."

"Anarchy." Bradford said. "That or some people we don't ever want to see in any government might become the government. So...we need to set the record straight. Damn."

Hammond closed his eyes. "I take full responsibility for what happened, since it was my daughter who brought us into this kind of situation."

No one commented on that.

"So...how are we going to response to the questions of the reporters?" Dr. Vahlen asked.

Hammond sighed again. "The Council decided to make it all official. Plus we can't really hide anything if more aliens are going to appear at random according to...the pink ones testimony there will be more." _More ponies. I don't remember signing up for this._

"However we don't have any means to tell when it will happen again." Bradford said.

An alarm went off.

"I just HAD to open my mouth..." he said in defeat before anyone ran off to mission control. A strike team was already present when they arrived. The holo globe was flickering and looked like it was about to shut down. Other lights and monitors were flickering too. Later they all would be told that communication somehow got cut off. The reason no one called the higher ups.

"What's going on?" Bradford and Hammond shouted at the same time.

"We don't know, sir! All systems suddenly shut down and started rebooting!"

"What?!"

"UP THERE!" Someone shouted. Everyone looked up and found a swirling mass appearing over the hologlobe. The strike team took aim at the mass and waited on edge. Everyone else who had a weapon with them took it out and pointed it at the mass.

"Is that...how that...other alien appeared?" Dr. Vahlen was struggling for the right words. She didn't want to use the words "pink" and "pony".

Suddenly a scream could be heard.

"-aaaaaAAAHHH!"

A violet something fell out of what could easily be assumed a portal and hit the ground. No shots were fired, but all weapons were pointed at the...lizard...alien...thing.

"Well..." Dr. Shen cleared his throat "this is a turn for the unexpected." He started approaching the whatever it was on the ground.

"Dr. Shen! What are you doing?!" Bradford shouted, when the doctor bent over, examining the thing. Said "thing" looked up, not managing to keep his head straight in position.

"Oww...nopony said it would hurt that much..." the thing said with a voice that sounded like that of a young boy. He shook his head clear before looking around, revealing his green serpent like eyes. "Whoa, cool place. WHOA!" the lizard boy jumped back, when he noticed Dr. Shen in front of him.

"Oh...hehe...you're...human, right?" the lizard asked. Dr. Shen nodded. "Yes indeed. My name is Dr. Shen. Am I to assume you're one of Ms. Sparkle's friends?" The chef engineer tried to be the voice of reasoning here, knowing that his colleagues were on edge at the moment.

"Uh...eh...yes. The name's Spike. Wait... YOU KNOW WHERE TWILIGHT IS?!" Spike exclaimed, jumping up one time excited.

"Yes, indeed."

"Can you bring me to her?!"

"I'm afraid you have to answer some of our own questions first."

"Ehh...I guess that's...okay." the thing put his claws behind his back and looked up. He didn't look a little bit intimidated. Instead he was beaming up at the soldiers. "Wow! That's some cool stuff you guys got there!"

_Ten minutes later, Spike was brought into an interrogation room._

"Well then...Spike was it?" The lizard nodded. "Yup. So, who are you?"

"You can call me Bradford." The man sat down on the other side of the table. _I should really reconsider if I keep this job or not._

Meanwhile Dr. Vahlen, Dr. Shen and Council Official Hammond were watching everything through a glass screen, like from one of those American crime shows (they're cool though; I like the humor).

"So, first things first, how do you know we were humans?" Bradford asked.

"Oh, Twi and I every once in a while went through a mirror in our world and landed in a world filled with humans. Though, I always turn into a dog for some reason." he muttered the last part, crossing his arms.

"A...mirror?"

"Eeyup. Probably sounds crazy, right? I mean, you guys don't belief in magic, right?"

Bradford suppressed the urge to sigh. He could already hear Dr. Vahlen's arguments of how magic couldn't exist and all. "Well, she did tell me she went into some kind of parallel universe..."

"Yup. You should have seen her! It was totally hilarious how she tried to handle her human body. And she couldn't use any of her magic. Man, thinking back...it's been so long..."

"Yes, anyway..." Bradford decided to change the subject "what exactly are you?"

"I'm a dragon, duh!" he said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Are you serious? With breathing fire and all?"

"Sure. Want a demonstration?" Spike turned to the left and let out a small green flame. Bradford jumped a little, shaking the table a little. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Y-yeah. Just...don't do it again, okay?"

"Sure. Twilight always gets mad when I practice my fire breathing. Doesn't help she always has at least one book with her."

_I have seen her carrying piles of books with her from time to time. And she seemed to be really fond of them._

"What is your relationship with Miss Sparkle?"

"My relationship?" Spike put a claw on his lips, thinking. "Well she's the one who hatched me with her magic."

"She...hatched you?" Bradford asked, trying to confirm if he heard things right.

"Yup. I was her entrance exam for Celestia's School of gifted unicorns. Buuut, it sucks you know? Thanks to her, I don't grow naturally. I should already have my wings, but her magic did something to me. Oh well, can't complain. She was just a filly at that time and I'm also gonna live for MUUUCH (he stretched his arms) longer than any other Dragon. And I'm gonna grow eventually. At least that's what Princess Celestia told me."

_I think I'm gonna retire. Any moment. Right now._

"So she's like your mother?" Bradford asked, rubbing his temples.

"MMmm, more like my sister. Princess Celestia took care of me until Twi was old enough. Ever since then, I am her number one assistant!" he declared proudly.

All of the sudden he put his claw in front of his mouth and burped up. "Urrgh, oh, oh. Stay away."

"What? Why?"

"Just...here it comes! *BUUURP*!"

"Gah!" A green flame appeared in front of Bradford, after Spike burped. Luckily he didn't get burned. _Great, a dragon with stomach problems. Huh?_

"Is that...a scroll?" the man in the room asked, looking at the scroll on the table. It had some kind of seal on it. Spike picked it up and checked the seal. "It looks like a letter from the Princess. Probably for Twilight."

"But where did it come from?"

"Duh...I just spit it out."

"What?" _I need to see a doctor. Very fast!_

"My flame is enchanted. I can sent letters to the Princess and receive them. Wanna send a letter? First time's for free. Just kidding, I do it as often as you want. Every friend of Twilight is my friend."

"...!" _Friend? I better don't tell him..._

"You said you can send a letter right away to...your Princess. Okay...I'll give it a try. Also I'll see to it that Miss Sparkle gets her letter." Which actually meant, the contents of the letter would be observed. It would be scanned for dangerous substances, then read and THEN it would be brought to Twilight. She of course knew the procedure, but the dragon didn't. It was better to keep him in cooperation, so they could get more information out of him.

A soldier brought paper and a pen, while Bradford gave her the letter.

"Okay..." _What should I write? I can't belief I am actually doing this. No one is coming in, so I suppose I can proceed. Let's see..._

_When was the last time I wrote a letter? Oh right, when I was in school. Today everyone uses e-mails._

_Princess Celestia,_

_I am Central Officer Bradford of X-COM. X-COM is an organization, which Twilight Sparkle infiltrated. However, instead of punishing her, the leaders of our world planned on treating her like an official ambassador, thanks for what she has done for us._

_According to Pinkie Pie, there will be more of your kind coming and all of them then trying to bring her back to your world. I think a warning is needed hear._

_Although I am probably not supposed to tell you this, I will tell you._

_X-COM is an organization to fight back alien invasion. In fact, we successfully threw back an alien invasion already. So you people or rather ponies better do not think of anything funny, if you catch my drift._

_I am sorry if I sound rude, but our people have gone through too much. If things would have gone differently, Twilight Sparkle would be dead by now._

_I will leave it at this for now. This letter is actually a test to see if your dragon friend says the truth._

_With regards,_

_Central Officer J. Bradford_

[I couldn't find any first name on Wiki, for none of the three heads of X-COM. Think of the J anything you want.]

Bradford put the pen away and looked up to the dragon. "So, how do you send it?"

"Just give it to me. Alright, here it goes." Spike breathed a flame of green fire and the letter disappeared in the flames.

...

"THAT'S your method?"

"I told you, my flame is enchanted! But sure, everypony doesn't belief me until they actually get the response.

Where is Twilight anyway? Can I finally talk to her?"

"Just a few more questions." Bradford tried to assure. _Only that I am out of questions. There's not really more I can ask him. Hmm, his home world? His assistance job? Yes, he might tell me more details about her._

_**A/N: CUT! I still feel like shit, but I said I'd update today. It's 21:24 German time, so I'm uploading this soon enough. Sorry about the crappy chapter. I write the next one when I'm completely fine.**_


End file.
